This invention relates to structures used to hold mental health patients and patients with behavioral problems where they are isolated from other patients and can be kept under observation during a behavioral episode, so that the patient can be kept from harming himself or others. The invention is specifically directed to the structure of a so-called seclusion room, which features a means for facilitating extraction of the patient from the seclusion room with minimal danger to the patient or to hospital staff.
Improved seclusion rooms have been proposed for the treatment and handling of individuals whose violent behavior may make them a threat to themselves or others. A patient unable to control his or her behavior is placed into an enclosed space or room, so the patient may be confined and isolated from other patients and from staff members until the patient's violent episode passes. In some cases, the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room may be cushioned or padded as a way of preventing the patient from injuring himself. In the typical seclusion room, there is a single door with an observation window, and an attendant or guard stands outside the room to monitor the patient during the period of confinement. When the patient becomes calm, the attendant can decide that the patient's violent episode has passed, and the decision can be made to end the confinement and allow the patient to return to the ward. Some medication may need to be administered at that time. On the other hand, if the patient's behavioral episode continues or if the patient becomes more violent, then it may be necessary for a team of staff members to enter the seclusion room and remove or extract the patient, control or calm the patient, and have appropriate medications administered to him.
A principal requirement for a seclusion room or chamber is that it must be a place where the patient can be temporarily isolated, under observation, so that a temporary behavioral flare up will not result in harm to the patient or to others. However, an important consideration which has been overlooked in the past is the safety of the attendants or guards, and particularly at those times when the violent patient has to be extracted from the seclusion room.
Normally, when an inmate or patient is placed into the seclusion room, an attendant monitors the patient by watching him or her through a viewing window in the room door. Most of the time, the patient will calm down within a few minutes, and can be removed and then administered the appropriate medications. However, in some cases the patient will become more and more violent after confinement in the seclusion room, and the monitoring attendant will decide to enter the room to keep the inmate from injuring himself or herself. At this point, the attendant is subject to violent injury, even when there is an extraction team of staff members present and trained to subdue the patient or inmate. Thus, there is a need to reconfigure the room environment to make it possible to extract the patient or inmate safely, i.e., to bring the violent patient out of the seclusion room without an increased risk of injury to either patient or staff.